SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Amazon has narrowed down the locations for their second headquarters to a list of 20 finalists  out of the 238 cities and regions that applied. The winning city could get up to 50,000 high-paying jobs and $5 billion in investment, boosting the local economy. Amazon's requirements were metropolitan areas with a population greater than one million and the ability to attract and keep strong technical talent.  SpotCrime is mapping crime in almost every major city in the US. We took a look at the 20 finalists  to see if we were mapping crime in cities appealing to Amazon.  We are aggregating good data from all by 1 city! This is good for Amazon - we believe a city with great police data transparency means better community relations and an open feedback loop. Cities who are transparent with crime data are typically transparent with other types of data, like transit or financial data, which can make addressing the growing pains that come with building their a massive HQ2 a lot

Recently in Montgomery County, Maryland, the elderly and Asians have been targeted for robberies. Since Sept. 17, 2007, there have been six robberies of elderly people. The local police have held information sessions alerting the elderly of these occurrences. The ages of the victims were from 63-years-old to 92. These robberies were home invasions and one has resulted in a murder. Police has evidence linking three of them but believe them all to be done by the same person. Also in the month of September 2008, three robberies have occurred invoving Asians. Two of these took place during the early afternoon and the other in the early evening. They occurred in Kensington, Wheaton and Bethesda. To see more information about the crime spree against to elderly and to view the crime map on Spotcrime's website, go to http://www.spotcrime.com/crimelist/2105875,%202105910,%202105918,%202105920,%202105921,%202105922 . For the crime map of robberies involving Asians, go to http://www.spotcri